1. When the sky bursts open,

2. …hearkening to its Lord as it is bound to do! When it hears and obeys and splits open as it must.

3. When the earth is flattened out, its expanse is increased as a skin is stretched, and there no longer remains on it any building or mountain

4. …and disgorges what is inside it – of the dead – and empties out – casts them onto the surface,

5. …hearkening to its Lord as it is bound to do – when it hears and obeys what is required of it. All of that will take place on the Day of Rising. After that, human beings will be shown their actions.

6. … Man, you are toiling laboriously – striving by means of your actions – t owa r d s the meeting with your Lord which happens at death, but meet Him you will! Man will be faced with his actions of good or evil on the Day of Rising.

7. As for him who is given his Book – the Book of his actions – in his right hand – in other words, the believer,

8. …he will be given an easy reckoning – this is in the presentation of his actions, as is reported in the hadith in the two Salih Collections which states, “Whoever has his reckoning examined will be punished.” After the presentation, he will be pardoned –

9. …and return to his family in Paradise joyfully.

10. But as for him who is given his Book behind his back – this is the unbeliever who has his right hand chained to his neck; his left hand is put behind his back and he is given his book in it,

11. …he will cry out for destruction – when he sees the situation he is in, he will pray to be destroyed

12. …but will enter and be roasted (read as yasla and yusalla) in a Searing Blaze.

13. He used to be exultant in his family – his clan in this world. He used to exult in his followers because of his clan;

14. …he thought that he was never going to return to his Lord.

15. Indeed, he certainly will return to Him. But in fact his Lord was always watching him! Allah knows that he will return to Him.

16. No! (The word “No” is redundant) – I swear by the evening glow – the redness on the horizon after the setting of the sun,

17. …and the night and all it enshrouds – the animals and other things,

18. …and the moon when it is full of light and its light is at its greatest which is on the “white night”, the 14th of the lunar month,

19. …you will certainly mount up (read as tarkabunna and tarka - banna) stage by stage. “O people, you will proceed state after state, first death, then resurrected life, and after that the states of the Rising.”

20. What is the matter with them (the unbelievers) that they do not believe – what prevents them from believing? What evidence do they have for abandoning faith when the proofs exist? –

21. …and, when the Qur’an is recited to them, do not prostrate? Why do they not humble themselves when it is recited and believe because of its inimitability?

22. In fact those who disbelieve say that it (the Resurrection and other things) is lies.

23. But Allah knows best what they are storing in their hearts. He knows what is being collected in the pages of their actions in terms of unbelief, denial and evil deeds.

24. Give them the news of a painful punishment,

25. …except those who believe and do right actions: they will have a wage that never fails. Their reward is not cut off nor decreased and they are not indebted for it.